The world’s best No Yeast Bread – Irish Soda Bread! Irish bread is unique because it’s a 4 ingredient, 5 minute recipe made without yeast but still has a proper crumb just like “real” bread.
You don’t need to be Irish to make this.😉 You just need to be a fellow Carb Monster! Rustic flavour, great crust, keeps well for days. Slather with butter, mop your plate clean, dunk into soups – or Irish Beef and Guinness Stew!
World’s BEST No Yeast Bread!
People say that the smell of fresh bread baking in the oven is one of the best things in the world.
Forget the smell. What about the moment when you cut yourself a thick slice of warm homemade bread, slather it with butter then take a big fat, satisfying bite of it??
I’ll take THAT over the smell any day ……. 😂
“Irish Soda Bread takes just 5 minutes to get in the oven. So you can have fresh bread any night!”
What it tastes like
It’s called Irish Soda Bread because it’s made with baking soda instead of yeast. Because of this, it’s more dense than your everyday white sandwich bread. Hearty and rustic are the words that come to mind, and it tastes kind of nutty from the wholemeal flour.
While dense, it still has an aerated crumb like “normal” bread. And it’s got a great crust which I love!
What goes in Irish Soda Bread
Here’s what you need:
Flour – white flour makes a slightly more tender crumb whereas wholewheat/wholemeal adds flavour. So using both is best – but it can be made with just either flour.
Baking Soda – This is baking powder on steroids, with almost 3 times as much rising power. Because this is a formidable ball of dough we’re working with here, we need the super strength of baking soda instead of baking powder!
Buttermilk – The vinegar in buttermilk activates the baking soda, giving it a kickstart which you need for a loaf of bread this size. Easy sub: Just mix milk and lemon juice or vinegar, leave to curdle and use per recipe. It’s a near perfect sub.
Salt – the only seasoning required! See below for more flavouring options
Don’t worry if you don’t have buttermilk. Make your own with milk and vinegar – it’s a near perfect substitute.
No egg? No butter? No sugar??
That’s right! This is a traditional Irish Soda Bread we’re making here. For one thing, this bread is better without egg and butter. Egg makes the bread less moist, and the butter made the crumb less tender (I made side by side versions just to be sure).
And this bread has enough flavour to eat plain with just lashings of butter so you don’t need extra flavourings like sugar and spices – though you can if you want.
To avoid your Soda Bread coming out as hard as a canon ball, don’t knead more than 10 times!
Irish Soda Bread Tips
Irish Soda bread is a mix / 10 second knead / shape / bake job. It’s very simple and quite forgiving but I do have a few tips to ensure yours is a success even if you’re a bread first timer.
3 minutes into oven – Once you add the buttermilk, aim to get it into the oven within 3 minutes. This is because buttermilk activates the baking soda. So the second it is added, the baking soda is fizzing away, getting ready to do its thing. If you leave it lying around, it loses its firepower = dense dough.
10 Knead Rule – Like all no yeast bread / muffin type recipes like Blueberry Muffins and Herb Garlic Quick Bread Loaf, the less you handle the dough, the softer the crumb. So don’t knead more than 10 times!
The wetter the dough, the more moist the crumb – Just use enough flour to be able to shape and move the dough.
As with every dough recipe, even simple No Yeast flatbreads, the exact amount of flour required will differ for everyone, even from day to day. Different flour brands, humidity, warmth, coldness of your work surface – all these impact the exact amount of flour required.
It’s better to have a stickier dough and add more flour as required, rather than a dry dough which is hard to salvage. So I start with 1.75 cups, then measure out another 1/4 cup for dusting/kneading and just use what’s required.
Variations
This version I’m sharing today is a plain traditional Irish bread. I say it’s “plain” but it’s certainly not flavourless. You’ll find yourself devouring it with nothing more than butter! But it’s also a terrific to add flavourings, some common variations include:
Oats – inside and sprinkled on top
Raisins, caraway seeds
Seeds – sesame, sunflower, linseed and pumpkin seeds is a combination I tried at my local markets today!
Eat it plain, toast it, or serve it with….
This is such a great last minute emergency bread. It’s so quick to make, but you won’t feel like you’re “just making do” just because it’s a no yeast bread. It is a great bread as it is.
Make it to dunk into one of these soups or stews:
OR use it for toast in the morning. Make Cheesy Garlic Bread, or big Jewish deli-style Pastrami sandwiches. Just use this as you would any other bread – except you have the added bonus of smug satisfaction knowing you made it yourself!! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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World’s Best No Yeast Bread – Irish Soda Bread!
Ingredients
- 2 cups white flour (plain / all purpose)
- 1 3/4 cups wholemeal flour (wholewheat, Note 1)
- 2 – 3 tbsp Extra Flour (either flour, for dusting)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda (bi-carb, Note 2)
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 cups buttermilk , fridge cold (Note 3)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 220°C/430°F (200°C fan).
- Line tray with baking paper.
- Whisk both flours (not Extra Flour), baking soda and salt in a bowl.
- Add buttermilk, stir until it’s too hard to stir anymore.
- Sprinkle 2 tbsp Extra Flour onto work surface, scrape out dough, sprinkle with more flour.
- Gently knead no more than 8 times, bring together into a ball. (Note 4)
- Transfer to tray, pat into 2.5cm/1″ thick disc.
- Cut cross on surface 1cm / 0.3″ deep using serrated knife.
- Bake 20 minutes. Turn oven down to 200°C/390°F (180°C fan).
- Bake further 20 minutes, or until the base sounds hollow when tapped in the middle.
- Transfer to rack and cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing.
Recipe Notes:
- 1.75 cups (435ml) + 1 tbsp of full fat milk
- 1 tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice (or other clear vinegar)
- Mix the milk and lemon juice together, set aside for 15 minutes. It will congeal on surface. Then use in place of buttermilk in recipe.
- Volume is just shy of 2 cups of buttermilk (per recipe) because this substitute is thinner so you need to use a touch less otherwise dough gets too wet.
- Oats – brush surface with extra buttermilk and sprinkle with oats. Can also mix in oats (up to 1 cup), but reduce flour in dough by 1/2 cup;
- Raisins! Stir in 1 cup
- Seeds! Pumpkin, linseeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, poppyseed. Stir through and sprinkle on top, about 1/2 cup.
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
When he spotted a duck under the jetty. It took much effort to drag him back up the stairs – and he very nearly pulled me into the water!!
Can you clarify the oven temperatures please? For a standard American oven? Thank you😊
Hi Melissa, that’s 220C/430F standard or (200C/390F fan).
Even easier than expected! This will be my go-to bread from now on. Tasted delicious toasted on the 2nd day.
Wahoo!!!
Hello, Nagi! You”re right! This is the best bread indeed. The reasons? Easy to make, only 4 ingredients, anyone can do it, the fastest bread I know, and the taste… Thank you for all the recipes but, most of all for the time you invest in those recipes to explain, even a child can understand. All the best to you all!
That’s such a nice compliment Razvan, thank you so much ❤️
Hi Nagi, Awesome, just like my Gran Ma made when l was a kid. Could you pleeease post bhan mi (westernised version, as sold in Vietnamese bakeries. Thanks and sooo luv this site. I have trawled so many and by far yours is tops. Thanks
That’s so great Su! And yes, I need to post Bahn Mi!
This is the best bread, I love it. I have made it often, when I haven’t got buttermilk I use whole cream milk and use a squeeze of lemon or vinegar in it to make the milk lumpy, works fine. Thank you for this great recipe
Great idea Penny!
Dear Nagi, thanks for the recipe; this looks absolutely incredible! I hope this isn’t a silly question, but am wondering if the buttermilk substitute also has to be fridge-cold, or if the temperature it reaches after the 15 minutes it spends curdling is fine? 🙂
That’s not a silly question at all, it’s a very good question 🙂 It is fine to use after leaving it out on the bench, it’s thinner than buttermilk anyway so being fridge cold vs left out for 15 min won’t make a difference. But if you get distracted and have to refrigerate the lemon-milk for a while, I’m sure that’s fine too (haven’t had to do that for this recipe but I have for other buttermilk recipes even Red Velvet Cake was 100% perf using a refrigerated overnight lemon-milk!) – N x
I made this tonight. I was even able to get buttermilk. Because my dough was super sticky and globbing all over my hands I got fed up and just threw it onto the cookie sheet, sliced the top and put it into the oven.
Imagine my surprise when it finished baking and cooled. It was FANTASTIC. Not dry, nice crust and a lovely crumb. I had invited a neighbour down to taste it and she liked it even without butter! I slathered my pieces with butter.
This is definitely another of yours that will be a keeper.
Rereading the recipe, I see I should have had more flour in a cup ready to dust more as needed. You can imagine the trouble I had with dough about a quarter of an inch thick covering both my hands and trying to get a paper towel to pick up a measuring spoon to dole out more flour – a nightmare.
So to anyone who tries this recipe and gets to where I was, don’t despair – I think this is probably another one of Nagi’s no-fail ones. And super quick.
Yes definitely have flour for dusting!!! 😂
Nice one!! ☺️
Hi Nagi, It is such a sad statse this world is in at the moment, we can only hope for better times ahead with less aggression and violence and more peace and good will towards our fellow human beings. Prayers go out to those who lost their loved ones. I have not had any luck with the soda bread. First lot put all milk in with flour and it was just a sloppy mess but i put it in a loaf tin and cooked it and it was OK. The next lot I just added enough milk (3/4 of it) to make a sticky dough and it is now in the oven cooking. What am I doing wrong? Thanks Nagi for all your great recipes and the pics of Dozer which my husband and I love as we no longer have our beloved dog. xxx
Hi Coral, what type of flour are you using? – N x
This newest tragedy happened in New Zealand but it is relevant to every country in the world each and every one us. It is not ‘other people’s business’: each and every one of us has a part to play to heal the world . . . Quite like the healthy soda bread actually baked around most of Europe . . . must make some again . . .
I totally agree Eha!
Hi Nagi
Love the recipe.
As for the horrible event at Christchurch, New Zealand, I saw the video. I am still processing the madness!. Smh…
My prayers go out to all!
You and Dozer have a great weekend! Hugs 😊🌻
Thanks so much Gail!
Hi Nagi, I am from Ireland and my mother used to make soda bread. It was the best bread I ever tasted. Here in Ireland we have a flour especially for making soda bread. It is called Self raising soda bread flour. You only use it and buttermilk and a wee taste of salt and a tsp of sugar. I have made this bread but it never tastes as good as my mothers.
Oh sounds divine Olive!
OLIVE , THE BREAD DOES NOT TASTE THE SAME AS YOU ARE USING THE WRONG FLOUR I USE UNBLEACHED FLOUR WHICH IS GREAT FOR BREAD MAKING AND ADD THE BAKING SODA AND KEFFIR OR SOUR MILK
The bread only tastes different because it’s me making it and not my mother! The ingredients are the exact Same, and this is the proper flour in Ireland that is used specifically for soda bread. It’s all got to do with the mixing and my mother could have made this bread with her eyes closed she made it that ofren. 🤩🤩
Tomorrow nights dinner sorted. I’ll be making this soda bread along with your Irish Stew recipe. I’ll serve the strew on top of a big pile of Potato Colcannon. The bread will be perfect for mopping up. Yummo.
Perfect!!!!
Do I use two cups of all purpose flour in 1 and 3/4 cups of whole wheat or is it either or
Dear Nagi..these are teriible times for your neighbour’s. but the uplifting part for me is receiving your recipes and blog about you the food (always great) and Dozer. .thanks for Irish soda bread recipe will try it on March 17👍
Thanks so much Gillian, I hope you love it!
Nagi, this sounds wonderful. I love soda bread. Just wondering if I could use Slmond flour fir this recipe. I’m eating low carb lifestyle.
Blessing to families and victims in NZ. 😢. Thanks.
Hi Linda, I imagine it may bee too dense unfortunately – N x
What a sad day. My heart breaks for New Zealand. Hugs to Dozer. We just have to hold and hug those we love every day.
Definitely ❤️
Our hearts and prayers are with you along with those in NZ and Australia.
❤️
Thanks Nagi for another great recipe. I like the fact that we don’t have to wait around for the bread to rise. #superspeedybread
I have been waiting for st Patrick’s day recipe from you and you didn’t fail. Hahaha
As per your email, I pray the Lord heal our land and the people killing other humans would realise there is more to life than committing this unimaginable act.
Cheers to a great weekend Nagi!!
This looks great and since I am making corned beef and cabbage this weekend, I will probably make the bread too.
About the shootings in New Zealand. All these shootings and wars in the world are very painful. I appreciate sites like yours where you show that we all have things in common (love of great food) and that we all like to tweak it to our own tastes. Food and music will bring the world together if we give them a chance.
Here’s a hug for you and Dozer.